#roh womens world championship

[allelitewrestlings]

[machobusta]

[wrestlingmgc]

ROH Women's World Champion Athena

[wrestlewar]

My prediction for 2023, Jade Cargill (or Jamie Hayter even) becomes a Triplecrown Champion

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

This is a poll blog that asks the question…could your favorite fictional character be a pro wrestler? Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!

[geekhead79]

ROH Women’s World Champion Athena said the following on Twitter:

“I have tried to write this a billion times and figure out the right words to say and i still dont think i know what to say... But it boils down to this I am thankful for my minions that have supported me. I am thankful for all the trolls that give me the motivation to prove them wrong. I am thankful to every hussy I have beaten along the way to show everyone that I am the THE BEST IN THE WORLD!!!!”

With love and anger,

Athena

[spearzreloaded]

*Carting Aminata out from ROH (WOH) just to take another L on AEW proper is wack as fuck.

AEW Creative really had me thinking that Aminata was going to win after that signature headbutt to Deeb.

One month after losing at Death Before Dishonor for the ROH championship, it's about time for a call-up.

But Shida again? I can't stand Khaled joints after the late 2000's but "How Many Times" ?

[caramara3]

Just Friends...?: Imani Cove

Playlist for fic

Name: Imani Cove

Nicknames: Emmi, Snips, Bumblebee

DOB: November 24, 1990

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

Born: Houston, TX

Billed from: Houston, TX

Resides: Orlando, FL

Age: 32 (as of 2023)

Ethnicity: Afro-Caribbean (mother is from Barbados; father's family is from New Orleans)

Height: 5 foot 7

Alma Mater: Texas Southern University

Occupation: Professional Wrestler * actress *

Years Active: 2008-present

Family:

Grandmother: Evangeline Whitley

Grandfather: Charles Whitley Sr.

Younger Sister: Nylah Raine

Accomplishments:

WWE:

NXT Women’s Championship (1 time)

WWE RAW Women’s Championship (2 times)

WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship (2 times)

WWE World Women's Championship (1 time, current; won at WrestleMania 40)

Women’s Royal Rumble Winner (2024)

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship (3 times, inaugural) with Bayley (2) & Rhea Ripley (1)

Third WWE Women’s Triple Crown Champion

Fourth WWE Women’s Grand Slam Champion

NXT Year-End Award (2 times) - Match of the Year (2016) vs. Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Dallas; Match of the Year (2019) -Team Ripley vs. Team Baszler at NXT TakeOver: WarGames

ESPY Awards:

Best WWE Moment (2021) - Imani Cove and Bianca Belair make history as the first Black Women to main-event WrestleMania 37

Bumpy Award (4 times)

Best Match of the Half-Year (2019) - surprise participant in the NXT Women's WarGames match

Tag Team of the Half-Year (2020) – with Bayley

Best Match of the Half-Year (2021) – vs. Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 37

Best Match of the Half-Year (2022) - vs. Charlotte at WrestleMania 38

Little Facts about Imani:

Imani is an alumni of the Reality of Wrestling school.

Before signing with the WWE, Imani was the it girl on the indie circuit from 2008-2015, shattering glass ceilings and expectations from fans and critics alike. She's worked with ROH, DDT-Pro Wrestling, PWG, & Shimmer.

At the request of Booker T, she auditioned for the fifth season of Tough Enough in 2010, but sadly didn't make the cut.

In late 2014 she became a free agent and was immediately approached by WWE. Their initial goal was to sign her and get her into a feud with Charlotte Flair before she was called up to the main roster, but Imani was still under a 90 day no compete clause at the time.

She finally signed with WWE in spring of 2015 and would make her first appearance on NXT TV in August 2015. She would later confront Bayley during TakeOver London and kick off their 5 month feud. She would win the NXT Women's Championship at TakeOver: Dallas.

She still holds the record for longest NXT Women's Championship title reign at 522 days before being defeated by Ember Moon during their feud at TakeOver: WarGames 2017. She would make main roster debut on the RAW after WrestleMania 34.

She appeared in the first ever Women's Royal Rumble at entry number 4, lasting 35:46 before being eliminated by Asuka.

In 2019, she made a surprise appearance at NXT TakeOver: WarGames as the mystery teammate for Team Ripley after Mia Yim was injured prior to the pay-per-view.

In June 2022, Imani got into a terrifying car accident while at home in Orlando. Her injuries were bad enough that it forced her to relinquish her Smackdown Women's Title less than two months after retaining it against Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 38. Imani returned the RAW after WrestleMania 39 100% cleared to compete again.

For her WrestleMania 38 entrance, Imani paid tribute to her Houston roots. She entered the arena surrounded by drivers of slabs with her in the main car.

Her dream WrestleMania entrance is to have either Megan Thee Stallion or Kendrick Lamar performing her theme.

Imani’s entrance music is heavily influenced by a mixture of 90s/00s hip hop and 2000s grunge.

Imani loves horror movies and musicals. Very odd combo I know, but a girl likes what she likes. Her favorite horror movie is Dracula/Scream and her favorite musical is Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Right now Imani has over 13 tattoos and counting, 13 to symbolize her lucky number. And yes, a good amount of her tattoos were done on Friday the 13th.

When Imani was 13 and Nylah was 7, they went into the custody of their paternal grandparents.

When Imani was 7 years old, her father died unexpectedly while at work. According to the autopsy, he suffered a brain aneurysm.

Imani, though a social butterfly, tends to keep her private life extremely secretive, especially in regards to her childhood.

Imani participated in dance, music, & theater in her teen years. She also played volleyball and competed in both weightlifting and track & field.

Imani has her B.A. in Music from Texas Southern University.

Thanks to her grandparents she is classically trained in piano and can play the guitar.

Imani's grandmother Evangeline was terrified learning her baby wanted to be a wrestler, but she agreed to let her train on one condition: that she went to college and get a degree just in case.

A few of Imani's major wrestling influences are Rey Mysterio, Chyna, Lita, The Wild Samoans, Batista, Trish Stratus, Eddie Guerrero, and Shawn Michaels.

Imani reps her hometown teams the Houston Texans and the Houston Astros.

She is very close friends with Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Bayley, Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Samantha Irvin, Zelina Vega, Naomi, and Jade Cargill.

She met Damian Priest in 2014 during the final stretch of her indie days and the two quickly formed a friendship.

Imani is fluent in three languages: Spanish, French, and German. She knows a little Japanese and is currently learning Italian.

She has an insane sweet tooth. She loves brownies, cakes, and ice cream, especially cookies-and-cream ice cream. Her favorite candy is watermelon rings.

Imani's signature fragrance is a perfume she created at a local shop in New Orleans. It's a blend of vanilla, black orchid, and amber that she pairs with Eos Cashmere Vanilla lotion.

Imani grew up in an affluent musical family. Her grandmother was a jazz singer in New Orleans for 30 years and her grandfather played trombone for her band (that's how they met).

Imani has three pets: an orange Tabby male named Cheddar, a Maine Coon female named Satine, and a grey pitbull male named Obi that she adopted during a UK tour.

She's a BIG ass nerd. Loves Lord of the Rings, Marvel, and is currently obsessed with a show called The Legend of Vox Machina. And she plays D&D with Xavier Woods.

The first thing she did with her first big paycheck, aside from paying her student loans, was pay off her grandparents house in Houston and move them to Orlando to be close to her.

Her favorite two matches of her career so far have been her vs Ember Moon at TakeOver WarGames and main eventing WrestleMania 37 with Bianca Belair.

Her sister Nylah is 6 years younger than her. Nylah is currently finishing her Master's in Law at Howard University. Nylah plans to use her degree and become a Civil Rights Attorney.

~~~~~~

*Notes: this is an AU in which Asuka didn't go to NXT and just went straight to the main roster. Imani mainly takes the place of Sasha Banks in regards of history making moments and achievements in this AU but with some slight changes. Imani also takes the place of Mia Yim as a surprise in the 2019 NXT Women's WarGames match, not Candice LeRae. Sasha Banks doesn't win the Women's tag titles with Bayley either times nor does she main event WM37 with Bianca Belair, Imani does. Imani's superstar level is in comparison to the likes of Bianca Belair & Becky Lynch, loved by fans and WWE Officials*

~~~~~~~

TagList:

@beibigirl124 @bossbitch-22 @bonni-98 @queencherryberry @blueblazezz @jstarr86 @just-another-side-blog @southerngirl41 @abadbitchblogs @new-zealand-chic @joannasteez @miss-kuki-nz @shamaness11 @thedeboniardevistation @crossfitjesusinblackskinnyjeans @damiansgoodgirll @terrortwinunicorn @bigstrongblackheart @rootedinrevisions @lavitabella87 @royallyprincesslilly @chaneajoyyy @gold--gucciempress @msbigredmachine @msnikkimoneypenny @cookiebelle @flawlessglamazon @wrestlingbabe @fivefootxo @adriennegabriella @joy-of-life88 @daniiwrites @glitterquadricorn @lorena26 @ambreignsfan4life @eringobragh420 @babiidee28 @madhatterbri @mzv11 @bellaamor88 @queenoftheworldisdead @wrestlingbabe @yana3sworld @writinglionqueen @retro-rezz-the-est

[mrsarcherofinfamy]

●Matt Taven x Reader●

Summary: You get put into a tag team match with Roddy and Matt gets jealous. (18+)

Y/W/N = your wrestling name

________________________________________

*Y/N's POV*

Walking out with The Undisputed Kingdom, we all stop at the top of the ramp with me standing next to Roddy and Matt and Mike standing behind us. Me and Roddy pat our title belts on our waists and start walking to the ring as the announcer is introducing us.

"This is your AEW Dynamite main event! This is a mixed tag team match scheduled for one fall with tv time remaining. Introducing first, accompanied by the ROH world tag team champions, Matt Taven and Mike Bennett, representing Undisputed Kingdom, the AEW International Champion Roderick Strong and the AEW Women's World champion Y/W/N!"

Me and Roddy climb into the ring as Mike and Matt climb up on the second rope. The boom hits in the music as Matt and Mike hold their championships up, Roddy puts his arms out straight and I make muscles behind him. I look down at Roddy putting my hand out and he grabs it, standing up. We walk over to our corner getting ready for our match. Matt takes my championship and gives me a kiss on the cheek while Will Ospreay and Serena Deeb make their entrances. I fix my kickpads when I see Will get up into Roddy's face. I walk in between them and push Will back getting in his face. Serena walks infront of Will, getting in my face.

"Oh you wanna go? Let's go than! I'll kick your ass all over this ring!"

I go to attack her but, Roddy wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me back into our corner. He pushes me against the turnbuckles and looks at me, putting his hands on my cheeks.

"Hey. It's okay. Calm down. We got this."

I take a breath, looking back at him. He pats my shoulders and I climb out onto the ring apron grabbing the tag rope. The bell rings and we start our match.

_________________________________________

*near the end of the match*

Roddy lifts me up in a wheelbarrow and slams me ontop of Serena. I lift her leg for the pin as Roddy hits Will with a forearm knocking him to the apron. 1. 2. 3. We pick up the victory and Roddy grabs my wrist helping me stand up. He holds my arm up in the air celebrating our victory as Matt and Mike run over towards Will on the floor. They grab Will and drag him into the ring, holding him by his arms.

"Y/N! Grab my belt!"

I roll out of the ring, walk over to the time keepers area and rip the belt out of the announcers hands. I slide it into the ring and crawl under the ropes over to Will who is trying to get out of Matt and Mike's grip.

"The Undisputed Kingdom will forever be more elevated than you are! Bruv!"

I take a few steps back and hit Will with a kick to the side of the head. Roddy starts laughing and puts his hands on my shoulders.

"Move out of the way darling! I'm not done with him yet!"

I smirk and move out of the way as he runs over hitting Will in the head with the championship. I start laughing evilly as Roddy walks over putting his arm around my shoulder. Matt and Mike come over and pick him up on their shoulders. Matt looks over at me, shooting me a nasty look which I shoot him a confused look back. They celebrate as I climb out of the ring, walk over to the time keepers area and grab my championship. I walk off without them to the back.

_________________________________________

*near the end of the show*

There is a knock at my door as I am in the middle of drying off my hair from my shower. The knock gets even more intense as I throw my towel on the couch.

"Y/N! Are you in there?!"

I run over to the door and open it seeing Matt standing there looking pissed off. He walks in, grabs the door and slams it shut, locking it. I step back from him looking at him and breathing hard. He turns around looking at me pissed off.

"Is something going on between you and Roddy? Why did he call you Darling? Why did he put his arm around your shoulder and his hands on your face? Is something going on that I don't know about? Are you cheating on me?!"

"Woah woah woah Taven baby."

I walk up to him and put my hands on his chest rubbing him.

"I would never cheat on you. Especially with your best friends. I love you and only you."

He looks down at me and smirks.

"Oh yeah. Prove it."

I smirk, fall to my knees and start unbuckling his jeans. He looks down at me slightly drooling as I pull down his boxers and his dick springs out. I bite my lip than stick my tongue out looking up at him. He kicks off his boxers and jeans than grabs his dick smacking my tongue with it.

"You would never cheat on me right?"

I shake my head no as he keeps hitting my tongue with his dick.

"Good."

He quickly shoves his dick down my throat making me gag. He grabs my hair and keeps fucking my throat as I'm trying to push him back with my hands on his thighs. He grips my hair, pulls me back off of his dick and a bunch of spit comes pouring out of my mouth. He looks down at me smirking.

"That's my good girl."

He shoves his dick back into my mouth and lets it just sit in my throat as I start gagging. He pulls out as more spit flows down my chin. I look up at him and giggle.

"Can I prove myself now?"

"Go ahead."

He takes his hands off of my hair and his dick. I start bobbing my head up and down his dick as small moans leave his mouth. I keep going and playing with his balls with my other hand. I go faster starting to feel him tense up as he grabs my hair.

"Baby. Oh baby. I'm gonna cum."

I keep my pace still playing with his balls and he grips my hair even tighter. He moans really loud and I feel his hot seed run down the back of my throat. I swallow it all and clean him up. He looks down at me releasing my hair with a little smirk.

"Okay. Let me see."

I open my mouth showing him that I swallowed it all. He puts his hand out helping me stand up and I look at him with a little smile.

"Have I proved myself?"

"A little. Let's go back to our hotel and you can really prove yourself."

The End!

[bullet-clubs-bitch]

Maybe a Jay white x reader where they are married and she is apart of the bullet club gold and they are so affectionate towards one another and Jay is always cheering her on and she does the same for him. Maybe she is a Gunn sibling and always wins her matches but prince Nana keeps harrasing her because of the bang bang scissors gang and they all come out there to protect the reader. And maybe swerve trys to get involved.

Bang Bang Gang

This one's a bit short but I hope you enjoy it! (This has not been proofread!)

@saramusazzi99 asked to be tagged in this :)

Mentions: Of Prince Nana being a perv

Main Masterlist Jay White Masterlist

One of the main reasons I signed with All Elite Wrestling was so that I could be with my wife Y/n. It had been so long since we were in a promotion together. Instantly the two of us were put in a faction together, the fans loved seeing us together and I coudn’t deny getting paid to spend time with my wife. Both of us were hesitant at first to create Bullet Club Gold since I just left Bullet Club in Japan but Tony Khan assured us everything would work out just fine. I trusted him up until this very moment. Currently, I sat in the Bang Bang Lounge trying to calm down my clearly upset wife. For some odd reason, Prince Nana of all people had been coming out and causing Y/n matches. I didn’t have anything against Swerve and The Gunns and Juice had nothing against the Moguel Embassy. So why was Y/n getting harassed by them?

“So tell us what happened one more time,” Austin asked “Well, I was just having my match with Willow Nightingale when all of a sudden Prince Nana appeared. He asked me if I wanted to see his ‘royal jewels’. When I told him to fuck off he reminded me that he was always watching” My blood was boiling once I heard Y/n explain what occurred moments ago once again. 

I know it didn’t sound like much but this Prince Nana thing had been happening for weeks. Normally I would be ringside for all of Y/n’s matches but every now and then we needed a break from the other. Not to mention our matches happened to be booked back to back. “Do you want me to do something? I can talk to him?” I asked  “No, can you just be ringside for my next match? If I’m trying to become AEW Women’s world champion I need to be focused on my matches. How can I focus if I’m constantly thinking of Prince Nana” Y/n had a point. She needed to be completely focused on capturing gold. “I promise, next week Prince Nana will regret even breathing in the same room as you” 

Just like I said I would keep my promise. Next week Y/n would get her shot for the number one contender for the AEW women’s championship and I would do anything to ensure she would be victorious. As Y/n made her entrance Juice, Austin, Colten and I followed close behind. We watched the ring like hawks, one of us stood on each side of the ring. Just if on command Prince Nana appeared out of nowhere. “How much do you want boss?” He asked me “What? “ “How much?” “How much for what?” “How much for Y/n?” did this psycho just ask me how much I would sell my wife for? I was sick to my stomach at his comments. “Excuse me?” “I think she would make a great addition to the Moguel embassy” I was distracted from my conversation with Prince Nana when Y/n asked “Is everything okay out here?” to which I responded cheerily “Everything is fine my dear” 

I waited until Y/n won her match before I started to beat the bloody hell out of Prince Nana. Soon the Moguel embassy and Swerve joined the mix and we were now at war. This was a bloody brawl. 

Security tried to pry us off each other but it was no use. This was personal, I was going to make them regret everything. I knew I had taken it too far when they sent the entire locker room out to separate us. Reality set in when Y/n looked at me like I was a madman. I looked down to see the Moguel Embassy lying in a pool of their blood. 

I didn’t care about the consequences, I didn’t care that the Gunns and I could get our ROH trios titles taken away. All I cared about was making sure Y/n was okay. I wanted to send a message to the locker room. If you mess with my girl you’ll breathe with the switchblade. 

[starrycourtss]

MY WRESTLEDREAM PREDICTIONS BECAUSE MY COLLEGE BUS WAS LATE AND I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO 🔥🔥

Zero Hour

ROH World Television Championship Match: Atlantis Jr. vs. Brian Cage - honestly haven't seen a lot of Brian Cage but I feel like he does deserve a championship.

Harley Cameron vs. Anna Jay

MxM Collection vs. The Acclaimed - this match is gonna serve cunt and I'm all here for it.

The Conglomeration & The Outrunners vs. Dark Order vs. Premier Athletes

Main Card

'Hangman' Adam Page vs. 'Switchblade' Jay White - I love you Adam, but I love Jay so much more. Then, he can go and correct wrong No. 2, aka my father, Christian Cage (I'm probably gonna post a whole rant about it if/when he wins).

AEW Women's World Championship Match: Mariah May vs. Willow Nightingale - I'm so sorry, Willow. Build the storyline up a bit more, and then we could finally see you be crowned the champ (also, Toni Storm return if Mariah wins, maybe??)

TNT Championship Match: Jack Perry vs. Katsuyori Shibata - I really like Jack Perry, and the title is far too cool for him to lose it just yet.

Triple Threat Match for the AEW International Championship: Ricochet vs. Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita - I don't mind either Will or Konosuke taking the win.

Swerve Strickland Returns - Idk what to put for this, but I feel like Bobby Lashley is gonna appear.

2 Out of 3 Falls Match: Hologram vs. Beast Mortos - Hologram is gonna get jumped by the LFI afterwards.

Darby Allin vs. Brody King

ROH World Championship Match: Mark Briscoe vs. Chris Jericho - Please win Mark, I don't want Jericho to be a champion again.

AEW World Tag Team Championship Match: Young Bucks vs. Private Party - I will never forgive Private Party for changing their theme song.

Main Event

AEW World Championship Match: Bryan Danielson vs. Jon Moxley - This match is gonna be such a fucking BANGER, and I really don't want Bryan to lose, but I think this may unfortunately be the last time we see Bryan Danielson fight in a squared circle 😔😔. Also Yuta is gonna turn on him, I'm sorry. BRO WAS MORE FOCUSED ON HIS CHANT THAN HIS SON, so I won't be surprised if that happens. I've also seen rumours of Shane McMahon appearing, which would just be fucking chaos but I would love it.

[machobusta]

[wrestlingmgc]

ROH Women's World Champion Athena

[littlemagicalstardust]

AEW WRESTLEDREAM TONIGHT! - The Conglomeration's Mark Briscoe is defending his ROH World Championship! - The Conglomeration's Willow Nightingale is challenging for the AEW Women's World Championship! Orange, Kyle & Rocky aren't scheduled for matches tonight. I'll share GIFs/Photos at random! *If you specifically want GIFs/Photos of anyone/any match, feel free to reply to this post and I'll see what I can do :)

[westofessos]

Maybe a hot take? But especially after Athena main-eventing two PPVs and continuing to carry ROH on her back and people still complaining that Eddie was only in a proving ground match as champ last night, I feel the need to say this.

Either all titles need gender identifiers, or none of them do.

Either MJF and Eddie Kingston and all other male champions are called the “Men’s World Champions”, or Toni Storm and Athena and all other female champions are just called “World Champions.”

As it is right now, it’s not equal, and it makes the men’s championships seem more important. Athena being “women’s champion” while Eddie is “world champion” makes it seem like (and has made people think that) Eddie as champion and his belt are more important, therefore he should have main-evented Final Battle and not Athena, because she’s “just” the women’s champion.

I don’t know, it’s just something that bothers me.

[fagcrisis]

my friend ellis @jonny-dykeville wants to get into njpw, and i thought id write her a little summary of whats been going on lately! im posting it here in case its useful for anyone who wants to get into nooj but finds it a little too confusing (understandable) or has stopped watching in the last couple years and now wants to get back into it

this will include a list of matches at the end from 2023 that i think were good and/or are important to storylines! this is accurate to the day im writing it which is 2023/05/15

LINKS TO BE UPDATED

The landscape of New Japan Pro Wrestling has changed enormously in the past couple of months. For example if you told someone a year ago that Kazuchika Okada would hold a non singles belt, theyd laugh in your face.

So how did we get here?

google doc version

Your current champions

Sanada beat Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP heavyweight championship at Sakura Genesis, and has since defended it against Hiromu Takahashi, the current junior heavyweight champion. 

Hiromu won the belt at Wrestle Kingdom in a four-way match against Master Wato, El Desperado, and former champion Taiji Ishimori.

The IWGP women’s title was created last year and won by Kairi at Historic X-over. She lost the belt to Mercedes Moné, who was champion until Mayu Iwatani dethroned her recently.

Aussie Open hold the tag titles after defeating Bishamon, and they’ve gone on to win the Strong openweight tag team championships from the Motor City Machine Guns.

David Finlay is the NEVER openweight champion, bringing the belt back in to Bullet Club after Tama Tonga defeated Karl Anderson for it at Wrestle Kingdom.

Intergalactic Jetsetters (Kushida And Kevin Knight) finally ended the reign of Catch 2/2 (Tjp And Francesco Akira) as junior heavyweight tag team champions during the road to Wrestling Dontaku tour, thank god.

Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii are the NEVER openweight six man champions winning the titles from Strong Style (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki And Ren Narita). If you think that sentence is insane, don’t worry I’ll explain whats happening.

Zack Sabre Jr became the inaugural NJPW World TV champion, winning the tournament at Wrestle Kingdom by defeating Ren Narita, and he’s had some incredible defenses since (you might’ve seen him on ROH).

the KOPW trophy graduated to a belt after El Phantasmo broke it, and Taichi is the current provisional champion having defeated Shingo Takagi for it. 

Kenta lost the strong openweight championship to Hikuleo in the first defense of the belt in Japan, after winning it from Fred Rosser (with Juice interference).

at the time of writing this the Strong women’s title does exist but the tournament to decide its first owner has yet to be held (Resurgence may 21st).

Karl Anderson will pay for his crimes

Those who have been following me since november last year know that Suzuki-gun, a heel faction in NJPW led by Minoru Suzuki, has come to an end. I was inconsolable. There are multiple reasons for this happening, but the main one is Karl Anderson.

While Anderson is a member of Bullet Club, and in fall of last year was still the NEVER openweight champion, he is contracted to WWE and was on a handshake deal with NJPW, essentially promising he’ll appear at shows they book him for. There was a scheduling conflict with one of WWE’s saudi shows, and Anderson essentially ghosted the company not appearing for his title defense against Hikuelo, which meant I had to watch Yujiro Takahashi wrestle. anyway this all meant that New Japan lost faith in their freelancers, and because the majority of Suzuki-gun were on handshake deals, this meant the faction had to go. Their last match was on december 23rd (njpwworld) (bilibili link) and it was very emotional and beautiful, and I was incredibly sad.

Shota came back!

Shota Umino, who you may know as the protege of Jon Moxley, returned from excursion in the fall of last year. Young lions (NJPW trainees) are sent abroad to foreign promotions by the company to train and gather experience in different environments to Japan. Shota was in Britain for a time and he returned, challenging Will Ospreay for the US title he still held at the time. He lost but with this high profile title shot he joined the ranks of the young stars NJPWhas much faith vested in. 

This also includes Ren Narita, who you may not know because he was never adopted by a mean american man. he was trained by Katsuyori Shibata, earning the nickname Son of Strong Style and wearing similar gear to Shibata as well. The company seems to be trying to set him up to be Shibata’s successor, and he wrestles a similarly, clean technical style.

A recent addition to their ranks is Yota Tsuji, whose return I will explain later.

The IWGP women’s title

Women’s wrestling promotion Stardom and NJPW are both owned by Bushiroad. Because of this last year there was a crossover between the two promotions, which saw the first mixed tag matches in an NJPW ring. Great show, you should watch it. (njpwworld link) (bilibili link)

For this event, the IWGP women’s championship was created and won by Kairi. Now I have some thoughts about how Stardom is already full of accomplished talented women, and putting a women’s match on the card once in a blue moon isn’t a win for women in wrestling and you should maybe try watching Stardom instead (guide on how to do that). But I digress. Regardless of whether or not this is pandering, every match for the belt was undoubtedly incredible and I will be linking them all in the rec section.

A brief Wrestle Kingdom aside

You fucking know what happened at Wrestle Kingdom I shouldn’t have to explain this to you. Kenny Omega returned and defeated Will Ospreay for the US title, and Okada won his beloved IWGP belt back from Jay White, starting him down the path of leaving NJPW.

What you might not know is what happened at Wrestle Kingdom Night 2, which confusingly was held some weeks later. Wrestle Kingdom traditionally is a show between NOAH and NJPW, so Night 2 saw the two promotions pitch their most popular wrestlers against each other. Okada was set to fight Kaito Kiyomiya in a tag team match, but he thought this challenge beneath him and attempted to murder Kiyomiya ruling the match a no contest.

Later in february, at Keiji Muto’s retirement show, Okada did have to face off Kiyomiya in a singles bout, despite his protests that he is not some cheap whore (his words not mine). That entire show is incredibly good but not extremely relevant to NJPW storylines, as crossover events usually are not. (njpwworld) (unoffical link)

After Wrestle Kingdom, New Japan holds New Year’s Dash and the New Beginning shows where they set up new storylines that will likely last the whole year. Jay White challenges Hikuleo to a loser leaves Japan match, because he blames him and his brothers (Guerillas of Destiny) for Bullet Club weakening and his loss at Wrestle Kingdom. He promptly loses this match. Bummer. 

El Desperado refuses to accept that Suzuki-gun is over and joins Minoru Suzuki in defending Ren Narita from House of Torture’s dastardly attack, leading to the formation of their trios team; Strong Style. They then go on to defeat House of Torture for the NEVER openweight six man tag team titles. Now this is crazy but we dont have time to dwell on it because the other remnants of Suzuki-gun are also making moves that are considerably more insane.

Its time for: faction madness

There are a lot of factions in New Japan Pro Wrestling. like a lot. Every storyline is heavily driven by who is in what faction and where their allegiences lie. This might be confusing to you if you only watch AEW, a promotion where factions matter less than what Tony adds to commentary.

TMDK

Naturally ex-Suzuki-gun member and best technical wrestler in the known universe Zack Sabre Jr couldn’t simply remain in Hontai, the main body of New Japan where factionless members of the roster belong. Luckily he was a free agent for all of five seconds before his old australian buddies snatched him and his fresh tv championship up. TMDK, known as an australian faction despite a solid half not being from Australia, has suffered some losses in the past year. Jonah, their strongest member, a man who defeated even Kazuchika Okada, left Japan for WWE. Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls, founding members of the faction and a tag team under the same name, have failed to succeed in winning Tag League in fall of last year. Safe to say, they needed a win. Zack has teamed with them during his time in NOAH, so it was only logical that he would return to his old friends. They even recruited a young lion, Kosei Fujita, who became the first young lion in a faction if you don’t count Hikuleo which was a slightly different situation. TMDK also includes Bad Dude Tito (or Big Teets) over in the States.

The addition of Zack really reinvigorated the faction. Shane and Mikey challenged and failed to defeat Aussie Open for the tag titles, and Robbie Eagles left Chaos for more australian pastures, joining the faction when he challenged Hiromu Takahashi for his championship. Robbie also lost but TMDK didn’t let these setbacks stop them from cutting the weirdest promos after every match and staunchly insisting Fujita (who they’ve nicknamed Big Fooj) will be the first young lion to win a championship.

United Empire

Will Ospreay is no longer the IWGP US heavyweight champion. After losing to Kenny Omega he threw a hissy fit and declared that he would give professional wrestling one more year. He also entered the New Japan Cup, a tournament for the right to challenge for the IWGP championship. Unfortunately in a match against his friend and stablemate Mark Davis (of Aussie Open and ass size fame) he injured his shoulder which put him out of action until about last week. He won the 1pw world title though, so he’s fine.

Other than that, the faction has been doing fairly well for themselves. After a titanic struggle against Bishamon, Aussie Open won the tag titles and have gone on to defend them against TMDK and somehow, Best Friends on AEW television. They also won the Strong tag titles, and Kyle Fletcher managed to botch a moonsault in both matches. You’ve definitely seen them even if you don’t watch NJPW, their schedule is insane and they have a banger of a match practically on a weekly average. 

Also tag champions in the faction were Catch 2/2, who held the junior titles until fairly recently. They’ve had great defenses against YOH and his new tag partner, Lio Rush (more on that in a second) and Douki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. What you need to know about Catch 2/2 is that TJP is a PragerU weirdo and Akira is good albeit italian.

UE also includes Jeff Cobb, who you might’ve seen challenging for Kenny Omega’s US title on Dynamite. He is incredible I don’t have anything else to say. He also kind of thinks flat earthers have a point. He’s really good though.

Also in the faction are Aaron Henare, men’s rights weirdo who challenged and lost to Shingo Takagi for the KOPW belt and Great O Khan who is somehow the Revpro champion. He is notable for having a nice bow in his hair and screeching. The most recent recruit to the faction is Dan Moloney, who unfortunately is fairly unknown to me. He joined the faction as a junior heavyweight and subsequently entered the Best of Super Juniors Tournament, which I will explain later.

Chaos

I’ve previously described Chaos as Hontai 2.0, because that’s really what it is. Lead by Kazuchika Okada, Chaos was the original heel faction in NJPW, founded by Shinsuke Nakamura. Nowadays it is a loose collection of allegiances that confusingly includes the entire Best Friends faction in AEW. Yes, that includes Trent’s mum Sue. Since becoming faces, Chaos members regularly team with Hontai because it all doesn’t really matter. 

Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at Battle in the Valley, and then asked him to tag together. They named themselves the Dream Team, and I only briefly pondered how well it ended the last time Tana teamed with a younger star. Anyways I’m sure this will go fine. They challenged Okada’s fellow Chaos members Bishamon for their tag titles they still held at that time, and sadly lost that match. They defeated the team of Shota Umino and Ren Narita, and then once again failed to obtain gold in a 3-way match against the Motor City Machine Guns and Aussie Open (who won). After Okada lost his belt, they recruited Tomohiro Ishii, who doesn’t like Tanahashi and doesn’t want to team with him because he isn’t in Chaos. Despite this, they managed to defeat Strong Style for the NEVER openweight six man championships.

Bishamon I’ve covered sufficiently enough I think, they are the team of Hirooki Goto who recently celebrated his 20th anniversary in professional wrestling and YOSHI-HASHI who used to be incredibly horrible and is less bad recently. They are fun and I like them.

YOH and SHO were a junior tag team in Chaos until SHO turned heel, joining Bullet Club. This left YOH in a sort of strange limbo, where he contemplated quitting wrestling and pursuing his more artistic ambitions (he is a musician and an artist). Rocky Romero, also a member of Chaos, got him and Lio Rush together to team for Junior Tag League, and they ended up winning the tournament! Although they failed to defeat catch 2/2 at Wrestle Kingdom, and Lio got injured, teaming with him seemed to bring YOH’s confidence back. He’s been wrestling slightly differently and with more self-assurence. The pair both separately challenged and lost to Hiromu Takahashi, two incredible matches that I will link below. Not even these losses brought YOH’s confidence down though, and he’s entered BOSJ alongside Lio although they are in different blocks.

Also members of Chaos are Rocky Romero, Best Friends (including Kris Statlander, Orange Cassidy, Sue, and I think quite possibly Danhausen), Toru Yano who is kind of a funny little man, and Tomohiro Ishii.

Los Ingobernables de Japon

Led by Tetsuya Naito, the tweener group is more of a loose collection of talented individuals than your regular faction. LIJ has a policy of letting their members forge their own paths and create their own success, instead of letting them fall back on the power of the group. 

Maybe the only exception to this rule is Hiromu Takahashi, who owes a lot of his success to the faction as well as his mentor Tetsuya Naito. Hiromu is very talented and has a very unique style both in his wrestling and his fashion sense. Unbiased corner ahead I like him a lot. He holds junior wrestlers in very high regard and recently organized the All Star Junior festival to showcase junior heavyweights from all around japan (njpwworld ppv) (vk link). He has a plush cat named Daryl. Hiromu is kind of the ace of the junior division right now, he is on his fifth title reign and is trying to defend the belt 12 times to beat the current defense record of 11 held by Minoru Tanaka. Currently he is 4 defenses into this streak, having defeated YOH, Lio Rush, Robbie Eagles and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Despite being champion he entered BOSJ, a tournament he’s won four times, three times in a row. If he wins, he’ll get to hand pick his opponent at Dominion.

I have no clue what to say about Tetsuya Naito. To quote my friend Jay, “it’s naito. he is an indescribable force of non-functional knees and the driest hair you've ever seen. he takes ten years to remove his entrance gear. he is naito”. You fucking know who Tetsuya Naito is.

This year, the main thing he’s done is defeating his mentor Keiji Muto at his retirement show in Febuary (njpwworld link) (vk link). He has a very hands off approach towards leading his group, sort of letting everyone figure their things out, which is why he didn’t really seem worried about his match against his stablemate Sanada in the New Japan Cup. You can imagine his surprise when Sanada not only defeated him but then declared that he would be leaving the faction, but more on that later. He also recently had a singles match against DOUKI, which was incredible.

Also members of LIJ are Shingo Takagi, winner of KOPW 2022 and former KOPW 2023 provisional champion, and also living legend. He made his name in Dragon Gate, a different japanese promotion you should also watch (I’m not at all being held at gunpoint by people whose names start with J), Bushi and Titan, who are both junior heavyweight luchadors I don’t know as much about as I should. They’re really good and they are both in BOSJ this year.

Bullet Club

Do I even need to explain. Don’t worry I will. 

Jay White lost his loser leaves Japan match to Hikuleo, but there was hope. He promised Gedo he would go to America and wrestle on Strong and right his wrongs. So obviously he immediately lost a loser leaves New Japan match to Eddie Kingston, barring him from ever wrestling in a New Japan ring ever again. After weeks of radio silence, he showed up on Dynamite, forming Bullet Culb Gold (2 bullet 2 club) with Juice Robinson and you all know what happened after that.

It’s spring which means it’s Bullet Club infighting season. After Jay’s loss, his long time rival David Finlay waltzed into the ring all goth and angry, cutting a promo about how the japanese fans never appreciated him and he is an outsider wherever he goes. If this didn’t make it clear to you that he was the new leader, don’t worry it wasn’t clear to me or El Phantasmo either. 

ELP was friends with Jay White, and made the rest of the Club agree that they will let Jay ride off into the sunset. A peaceful transfer of power is however impossible in Bullet Club, which is kind of a Stanford prison experiment for closeted gay men. It started bothering Phantasmo, that everyone in his faction so readily accepted Finlay as the new leader, like they weren’t fully behind Jay only a week ago. And anyone who questions the leader has to go.

Then came a months long game of gay betrayal chicken. Every postmatch, Phantasmo would assure Finlay that they were doing it for the club, refuse to too sweet the new leader, and the two slapping eachother in place of a tag. Meanwhile the faces in Hontai were increasingly more accepting towards ELP, Shota Umino even gave him one of his bracelets. The tension came to a boil at Sakura Genesis, where in a tag team match against Guerillas of Destiny and Master Wato, Phantasmo refused to commit the clubs usual heel antics and was brutally kicked out in response. Despite his close friendship with Taiji Ishimori and Kenta, both men readily betrayed him for David Finlay.

Phantasmo returned as a face to beat Finlay up after he defeated Tama Tonga for the NEVER belt, and the two have a title match set at Dominion.

As I mentioned Kenta and Taiji Ishimori are both members of Bullet Club, and Finlay recently recruited Clark Connors to be the clubs newest junior. He entered BOSJ alongside Taiji. Gedo, the head booker of NJPW is also a member of BC but he mainly stands ominously in the background and in kayfabe doesn’t have a massive role in storylines.

HOUSE OF TORTURE

I have to explain what’s going on here. Bullet Club has sort of a subesction? Called House of Torture. They’re only really part of BC in name only, and merch sales. Their thing is gratuitous cheating, if one HoT member has a match, the rest of them aren’t far behind making every match a handicap. Their members are EVIL, the leader of the group and former LIJ member, Yujiro Takahashi the incredible slow motion man whose joints creak audibly with every move, Dick Togo and SHO, who joined after betraying YOH and turning heel. SHO is actually pretty good but the presence of HoT at every match really ruins. Everything. I try not thinking about them.

JUST 5 GUYS

NOW baby. The reason I’m even writing this. The worst faction name in the history of pro wrestling. This faction is made of four ex-Suzuki-gun members and Sanada. Originally called Just Four Guys when Taka Michinoku, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI announced they would be forming a faction at New Year’s Dash. Taka made some baseless claims about how they will defeat everyone and change the landscape of New Japan. He also came up with their new catchphrase “You already die”. Commentary and everyone else immediately dismissed them as a joke that will last maybe a couple of months. Oh how wrong we were.

Initially, the group did not have much success. Douki and Uncle Nobu lost to Catch 2/2 in their title match against them, Taka kept getting pinned and they failed to deliver on their promises to destroy everyone who stood in their way.

Taichi, as their only heavyweight, entered the New Japan Cup. His first match was against Sanada, a man he’s had some history with when he was still tagging with Zack Sabre Jr as Dangerous Tekkers. Sanada was a man not really renowned for anything, he hasn’t seen any singles success since joining LIJ by helping Tetsuya Naito cheat, except for a US title run cut short with no defenses due to an injury. He had blonde hair and the best or the worst move in pro wrestling history, depending on if you ask my friend Ryan or me. He never hits a moonsault. I don’t think Naito even knew who he was.

Safe to say, absolutely no one expected Sanada to defeat Taichi, much less his superior Naito. What we expected the least is for him to announce he is leaving LIJ for Just 4 Guys, which was now to be renamed JUST 5 GUYS. With dark hair, a clean shaven face and soon, new gear as well, Sanada really found his footing among this motley crew, the way he never managed in his seven years during LIJ. He went on to blaze through the competition in the Cup, winning it and subsequently defeating Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP world heavyweight championship. Absolutely no one has expected this to happen, ever. Yet somehow, it is also one of the coolest things to happen, ever.

His former faction members in LIJ mostly seemed to just sort of accept he left, except for Hiromu. He said while he understood Sanada’s reasons for leaving, he felt betrayed. Hiromu challenged Sanada to a match for the heavyweight championship. No junior heavyweight has been able to defeat the heavyweight champion in the history of the company, although this match is not the first of its kind. 

When Sanada defeated Hiromu, the returning Yota Tsuji walked out into the ring and beat him up, held up the LIJ fist and carried Hiromu out of the ring. We don’t really know if this means he’ll be joining the faction, but it’s very likely, and the two have a match set at Dominion.

Obviously other stuff has happened but this is already 4000 words long and I still have things to explain to you. 

Whats happening right now

As I’m writing this, the 30th Best of the Super Juniors is just beginning. BOSJ is a round robin style tournament, just like the G1 where wrestlers are divided into two blocks and everyone fights everyone in their block. Usually, the winners of the two blocks face off against each other to win the tournament, but this year, the winner of each block faces off against the person who came second in the other block, and the winners of those matches are the finalists. The winner has the right to challenge for the IWGP junior heavyweight championship at Dominion.

This year’s participants are as follows.

I think this is absolutely the perfect time to get int New Japan. The junior division is full of incredibly talented wrestlers who focus more on fast paced high flying style matches and every one of them is easy to watch and very entertaining. The entire tour will be broadcast with full english coverage.

How do I watch all of this

New Japan conveniently has a streaming service called NJPW world, membership is 999 yen per month. Dont forget to toggle it to english in the upper left corner! Most shows have english commentary and in my opinion it is pretty good commentary. Even if you don’t want to pay for the site, it has a schedule page (upper right corner) which even displays multiple timezones, and links to the card for every upcoming show.

The site also has some free content, for example the backstage comments after every show. Backstage comments are essentially short interviews with the wrestlers directly after every match, which makes for very fun adrenaline fuelled nonsense. Search backstage comment on the site, or check the njpwworld youtube channel. The videos always have subtitles, but it takes the transcribers time, subs are usually out a day after shows air.

PIRACY 

In case you’d like to sail the high seas, you have a couple of options.

Watching show’s live I would recommend watchprowrestling.org for. They upload the shows and you can watch them live as well with a bit of delay.

If you’re looking for older stuff, you should try searching on bilibili (dont be intimidated by the language barrier, its quite easy to use) or this specific user on vk.com.

MATCHES TO WATCH

Title changes and defenses:

Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Master Wato vs El Desperado vs Taiji Ishimori (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Zack Sabre Jr vs Ren Narita FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tomohiro Ishii FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Shota Umino FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tom Lawlor FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Jeff Cobb FREE MATCH

Catch 2/2 vs YOH and Lio Rush (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Catch 2/2 vs Intergalactic Jetsetters (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:35:08)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Lio Rush (njpwworld) 

Hiromu Takahashi vs YOH (njpwworld) (unofficial link2:48:13)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Robbie Eagles (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld)

Kazuchika Okada vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Sanada vs Hiromu Takahashi (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Aussie Open vs Bishamon (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs TMDK (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs Motor City Machine Guns vs the Dream Team (Okada & Tanahashi) (njpwworld ppv)

Kairi vs Mayu Iwatani  (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Tam Nakano (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Mercedes Moné (unofficial link)

Mercedes Moné vs Kairi vs Hazuki (njpwworld)

Mercedes Moné vs Mayu Iwatani (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs El Phantasmo (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs David Finlay (unofficial link)

Taichi vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:44:00)

Strong Style vs Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hikuelo vs Kenta (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Story matches

Tetsuya Naito vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Hikuleo (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Eddie Kingston (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:04:00)

Bullet Club (David Finlay, Kenta, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) vs Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Jado) & Master Wato (njpwworld link)

just fun

Mark Davis vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Mark Davis vs EVIL (njpwworld)

Tetsuya Naito vs DOUKI (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:11:32)

El Desperado vs Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld ppv)

Shota Umino vs Tetsuya Naito (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Speedball Mike Bailey FREE SHOW

Taichi vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld)